Friday, October 9, 2009

I have to admit I was surprised at how many of you emailed me letting me know how much you enjoy the Paranormal Investigations and ghost hunts I post about. I'm happy to see others enjoy these stories and tours as much as I do.

My Paranormal Investigating group met up and carpooled down to San Diego. There were 7 of us. We were all excited to be going to the Star Of India.

I'm not sure if you have heard of this ship or not. Maybe some of you who watch the Ghost Hunting Shows on TV have seen when TAPS went out to investigate.

It is the oldest known ship that is still in service.

It is a beautiful ship! Back in the 1800's it was used to transport Immigrants. Later it became used to haul cargo.

It was not a military ship or one that fought in any wars. Think of it more as the cruise ships of the 1800's. There were Classes of passengers and depending on which class you were in the rooms and food met the needs of those classes.

I want to let you know that this post is going to sort of jump around and not really go with the flow that was on the night of the investigation. That is because as I was trying to up load the photos I had a hard time with some not loading up where they should have.

This is our team. We laid out all our supplies and equipment on the dining room table that was used in 1st class.

We had talked about the stories of things that have taken place on this ship and what other investigators found.

We then walked around with all the lights on so we could get and idea of what was in the rooms, where things were and to have areas of interest pointed out to us by the employee of the Star of India.

If we wanted any places unlocked he would do so. No place was off limits to us. After he took us around, he gave us his phone number to call him when we were finished and then he left the ship.

We were the only 7 people on board the ship that night. It was then time for lights out.

After setting up some of the equipment we broke up into two teams. We decided to have each team go to different areas of the ship at different times and put space between us so we would not be heard or seen by the other team.

The ship has been turned into a museum now and is open daily for tours. They also have schools come and they let the children spend the night while the staff dresses up in costume and they get to live as it was back in the time of it sailing.

They also hold dinner cruises.

It was a good thing we did a walk around with the lights out because no one knew they had mannikin's on board and even with the lights on it freaked a few of us out when we came across them, tucked away in out of the way places.

We had to become aware of all the stairs and areas of danger because we were going to be walking around with lights out on the ship. Using flash lights only when necessary.

One of the stories we heard was that several people have smelled fresh bread coming from the old stove. Yet it has not even been turned on for almost 100 years.

My team was in a room next door to the kitchen area. It was where the cook slept and lived while on board the ship.

While in there we called out to the cook to make some bread for us.

We didn't know at the time that the area we were in was not where the stove was. We thought the stove had been removed.

We waited for awhile and didn't hear anything in that room or smell any bread so we took off.

It was then that we found the door that lead to the room with the stove. As soon as we opened the door the smell of fresh baked bread was so strong.

I looked at Richard and we just started to laugh. The smell was so strong that we thought it was trick being played on us. We thought perhaps the room always had this smell and everyone would smell it.

Though we did thank the cook for answering us.

We left and hours later when we meet up with the other team members we went back to the room with the oven. As we entered we both noticed there was no smell in there at all.

We asked the others if they had smelled anything before and everyone said no.

Did Richard and I get a treat from the old cook? It seems like we did.

There are places through out the ship that have pictures of some of the passengers and crew members. It's all part of the museum.

It was nice to be able to put faces to the stories of the people we had heard about.

There are also areas that show you what life was like on the ship back in the 1800's and how they did things.

Like all the different knots that used to tie the ropes and for different reasons.

In this room we did a lot of EVP work. That is where you use a voice recorder to try to pick up voices and sounds that the human ear can not hear.

Many past investigators have captured lots of EVPs in this room.

While we were in this room Francis and I noticed as we asked questions out loud that the room got very cold quickly. The temperature had dropped over 10 degrees in a matter of seconds.

Then it went back up as quickly as it went down.

Some say that when a spirit is in the room the room will get cold and when they leave the temperature will go up.

Also while in this room we heard music playing in the next room over.

Though no one was out there.

It was a faint sound and sounded like a harpsichord.

Doing paranormal investigations is not like what you see on TV. There are not things that happen all the time. It is not a night filled with voices, noises, things moving and shadows all night.

In fact, most of the time you don't capture anything.

'So, when something does happen you try your best to explain why it happened.

With the music we thought that perhaps it could have really been coming from a car outside. Or maybe someone walking around on another ship.

The truth was we really couldn't come up with a good explanation as the music was not something that would be normally listened to in today's time.

As far as the coldness we thought perhaps a breeze could have kicked up. After all, we were on the water and it was an older ship with areas that wind could come through.

So there is an explanation for both things that happened. Strange as it seemed at the time we were not going to count either of them as hard evidence. Unless there were some EVPs going on at the same time.

Since I do not have the recordings, I do not know if anything was picked up on the recorders yet.

This is what a 1st class room looked like. Very tiny. Not much space at all. But at least they had a "room". The other passengers were all crammed into one room with just bunks of beds.

The beds were all very narrow and short.

These are the faces of some of the men who were actually on this ship in the past.

I wonder if any of them could be who make the noises, talking and walking sounds.

This is the first mates cabin. It is said that one of the Captains of the ship committed suicide in this room.

We did do a lot of EVP work in this room also. Again, I have not heard back as to if anything was captured.

Just before we left, one of the girls and I went in this room and shut the door. We did some EVP work and also had the K2 meter with us.

The K2 meter picks up electromagnetic fields and it is said that if a spirit goes near it then the K2 will light up. You can not make the lights go off yourself.

>As we were just talking to each other I asked "Why would the Captain come in here to kill himself rather then do it in his own cabin?" Right after that the K2 lite up and stayed on for a few seconds.

Was the Captain there trying to tell us something? Maybe that he didn't really kill himself but rather someone killed him? I don't know.

We did ask a few more questions and again, I'm waiting to hear if anything was picked up on the recorders.

It is also reported that a young man was a stow away and when he was discovered on board they were already out to sea. So in order to pay his way on the ship they put him to work.

While up here, he fell and broke his legs. A few days later he died of his injuries.

Many people claim to have seen this young man.

I have to tell you I did get a strange feeling every time I came by this area. Almost a sadness. Others reported the same thing.

Though we did not see or hear anything in this area.

We were also told of a crew member who was down below in the area where the large chains go that are attached to the anchor.

No one knew he was down there and when they dropped the anchor the man got caught in the chain and was cut in half.

He is said to be heard and seen on the ship to this day.

While in this area we did not see anything but we did hear foot steps and banging on the walls when we asked for a sign.

However, while it was strange that they happened right when we asked for the signs we could not say for sure that the noises we heard were just normal sounds coming from the ship.

Perhaps wind blowing the ship and causing something to knock on the walls or make the wooden floors creek in a way that sounded like foot steps.

It was errie though.

While in this area, which is now just used for storage but used to be where they put all the sick passengers, several who have died from their illnesses, we again heard foot steps and knocking sounds.

The other team told us they heard them also and also had a very heavy feeling of darkness and doom.

Everyone agreed that it was an uncomfortable feeling in this room and no one wanted to stay in here for very long.

The other team spent some time in this room where we had heard the music and they said that heard someone walking and saw a shadow go by.

One of the guys heard his name whispered in his ears.

'It will be interesting to see if any of the videos or recorders picked up anything in here.

Towards the end of the night we were getting pretty tired and so a few of us went up on deck.

This is Ron pretending he is the Captain. It was a very pretty area of the ship and really showed the beauty of the wood and craftsmanship.

This gives you an idea of how steep some of the stairs were. It can be very dangerous walking around with the lights out. So you need to be very aware and careful when you are on investigations.

The only reason you can see anything in my photos is due to the flash. It was super dark on the ship.

One of the guys ended up going back into the First Mates cabin and he too got a hit on the K2 meter.

So perhaps something or someone really was in that room with us.

No one could come up with any reason why the K2 meter would have spiked for no reason. Plus it was two different meters at two different times.

So there you have it. Not a real exciting story. Not a complete story as I don't have the broken down evidence yet but still an idea on what it would be like to be on a paranormal investigation.

It's fun. It's not scary at all. If you are out searching for ghosts or proof of the paranormal you should not be one who would be scared if you found something. You must look at it as if it is a search for the science behind things.

Don't expect to see Casper the Friendly Ghost or to see blood dripping from the walls like you do on scary movies.

Mostly it's dark and quiet and when something is seen, heard, smelled or felt you try to explain it away. When you can't, that is when you start count it as something paranormal.

Once I hear back from the other team members I'll let you know if we were able to capture anything on film or the recordings.

Oh boy as soon as I saw the kitchen I knew some thing was there before you wrote about it. There were men everywhere on there, and one woman. There was someone sitting on the bed in the one picture, a captains cap and dress. There were a lot of people there, that ship is loaded with spirits. They don't want to leave there they love the sound of the water lapping against the side of the boat.

You lead the most exciting life, Joanne! I just saw the movie, Paranormal Activity, over the weekend with my Courtney. It's only playing at select theaters, and since one was in Boston we went to a Saturday matinee.

I also plan to do a post some time soon about the orbs I've captured in some of my photos...

About Me

When I first started to blog, I had no idea what my blog was going to be about. Since we were in the process of remodeling our house, it gave me the name for my blog.
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